8mo wakes up at 4am every day for over a month - help!

[jmjd8]

My 8mo has consistently woken up at 4/4.30am every day for around a month and a half. I feel as though I’ve tried everything - switching naps, shortening naps, lengthening naps, earlier, later bedtimes etc but still no success - she’s definitely a morning baby!! I have a 6yr so we need to work her naps around the school run.

This is our typical day:
Wake: 4.30am
Nap 1 (in the pram on the school run): 8.30/9 - 9.45/9.15 (1.15hrs)
Nap 2: 12.30/1 - 2/2.30 (1.5 hours)
Bedtime: 6/6.30 (depending on how tired she is - she’s usually shattered by this time).

We stopped the 3rd nap (4-4.30ish) around 3 weeks ago as I thought she was having too much daytime sleep. Assuming it’s not good to pick the 3rd back up again?

Please note: I need to be out from 2.40-3.30 for the school run and i wouldn’t want to rely on a nap during this time as she doesn’t always fall asleep in the car.

She’s had lots of issues including reflux, eczema, congestion due to intolerances so she’s had her troubles (only suffers with eczema a little now).
We’re also having to still bounce or feed to sleep as she still won’t self settle initially. I think this is due to her discomfort previously and something she’s got used to as comfort. It’s not ideal but if she needs us to do it for now then I’m ok with that. Generally she’s ok during the night - as long as she doesn’t wake up ‘too much’ and then I’ll need to feed or bounce back to sleep.
Not sure if this might have something to do with it?

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!!!

Thank you!

I think you’re putting her to bed too early? Mine would have woken up at 4.30am too if I put her to bed at 6pm!

With two naps in day (3 hours sleep), my girl would then overnight sleep 8pm-6.30ish (with wakes up but would go back to sleep with shushing / strokes).

Two naps is really tricky, it’s so much easier when they consolidate to one long 2-3hour nap over lunch. Hang in there and good luck. Sleep is hell the first year, then improves drastically for most xx

A 6pm bedtime and a 4am wake up is 10hrs of sleep. She is waking up early as she is going to bed early. Its goinf to be a hard push but maybe try pushing her till 7:30 bed instead
It's hard when theyre so young as there is always the risk of them getting over tired and no been able to get them to sleep.

I used to put my son to bed around 9/10pm at that age otherwise he was up around 4am,

Also do you have a blackout blind in the room? It naturally gets light outside around that time so maybe that doesn't help

My kids went to sleep closer to 8pm -8.30 at that age. Neither of them ever slept more than 10.5 hours exactly overnight.

Really appreciate your advice - thanks.
Seems as though I might just need to power through with the later bedtime. Wondering whether I might need to introduce the 3rd nap for a short time until she starts waking a little later and then push the other 2 naps forward.
My eldest was a model baby - she slept 7-7 - so this is all an unexpected minefield!!!

10-11 hours overnight is average so inevitable. Get bedtime to 8pm even if means a 3rd power nap for a while to readjust. Keep other naps to 1 hour max. 7-7 is rare!